MEMORIAL STADIUM Renovation almost done - paying for it will take decades

Updated 8:17 pm, Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Teresa Regalado, an ironworker, scrapes down an aluminum handrail at Cal's Memorial Stadium.

Teresa Regalado, an ironworker, scrapes down an aluminum handrail at Cal's Memorial Stadium.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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Construction workers, above, put the finishing touches on the glass walkway on the top floor of Memorial Stadium.

Construction workers, above, put the finishing touches on the glass walkway on the top floor of Memorial Stadium.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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The opener against Nevada at Memorial Stadium is a week away.

The opener against Nevada at Memorial Stadium is a week away.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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Former Cal football players played a pick-up game on the new field Friday. University of California officials held their final walkthrough of Memorial Stadium for invited quest and the media Friday August 24, 2012. The Golden Bears will play their first home game in the new retrofitted stadium against Nevada Sept. firs to an expected sale-out crowd. less

Former Cal football players played a pick-up game on the new field Friday. University of California officials held their final walkthrough of Memorial Stadium for invited quest and the media Friday August 24, ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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A construction worker cast his shadow on the new glass walkway on the top floor of the remolded Memorial Stadium. University of California officials held their final walkthrough of Memorial Stadium for invited quest and the media Friday August 24, 2012. The Golden Bears will play their first home game in the new retrofitted stadium against Nevada Sept. firs to an expected sale-out crowd. less

A construction worker cast his shadow on the new glass walkway on the top floor of the remolded Memorial Stadium. University of California officials held their final walkthrough of Memorial Stadium for invited ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Image 6 of 6

A security guard climbs the new remolded stairs. University of California officials held their final walkthrough of Memorial Stadium for invited quest and the media Friday August 24, 2012. The Golden Bears will play their first home game in the new retrofitted stadium against Nevada Sept. firs to an expected sale-out crowd. less

A security guard climbs the new remolded stairs. University of California officials held their final walkthrough of Memorial Stadium for invited quest and the media Friday August 24, 2012. The Golden Bears will ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Cal stadium funding a long-term project

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Now that the Memorial Stadium project is nearly complete a week before Cal opens the football season against Nevada, the issue of how the university is going to pay for the $321 million overhaul is a matter of evolving finances.

While UC Berkeley officials were bursting with pride at a Friday news conference announcing the reopening of the stadium after 21 months of construction and seismic retrofitting, they were also aware of the multifaceted and fluid nature of the massive debt financing ahead of them.

"The project in its enormity has blocked out the sun for us for the last eight years," athletic director Sandy Barbour said. "Today we have the result we have been working oh-so-hard for. I am so proud that it is this day, this team that is actually delivering these facilities."

As John Wilton, the university's vice chancellor for administration and finance, explained, paying down the debt on the Memorial Stadium project is similar to a homeowner with a mortgage - writ large, very large.

"This does pose some challenges," Wilton said. "We have developed a very aggressive plan for satisfying the overarching commitment. ... Today is not a day to go into the financial weeds but to step back and celebrate these facilities."

Wilton said three professors from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business have been enlisted to examine the financial model for the stadium, which has changed over the years as the university's Endowed Seating Plan has fallen short of expectations.

"It's a complex set of variables that will interact and change over time," Wilton said. "These types of facilities are financed over a long period of time from revenues that are difficult to predict. The project was always expected to be debt financed over a long period of time. Just like a mortgage, you expect to pay the mortgage from future revenue streams."

Those streams, ideally forming a confluence of finances flowing toward an eventual payoff decades from now, are expected to come from the seat sales, media broadcast rights, marketing, concessions and non-football events to be held in the new stadium.

"The financial model is more complicated than (that)," Wilton said. "We're going to examine everything because we want other options."

On the subject of financing, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau credited the $3 billion broadcast rights agreement negotiated with ESPN and FOX by Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott as having a trickle-down effect on all schools in the conference, Cal included.

With a week to go before Cal opens its season against Nevada, Barbour said that about 1,700 tickets a day are being sold and that she expects a sellout of 62,500 on Sept. 1. That's about 10,000 less than the old stadium held due to club seats on the west side and allowances for wheelchair access as mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Once in the stadium, fans on the concourse level will be able to choose from a greatly enhanced menu on game day, including dim sum, sushi rolls, vegetarian chili, portobello mushroom sandwiches and hummus. And on the east side of the stadium, the Berkeley institution Top Dog will have a concession stand.

It's all part of a revenue stream that university officials are counting on - literally - to help pay for the new stadium.

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